Shelter from the Storm

It's been a busy week since we last updated. After having found a place to live (the one with the owner's photo above the bed), we all sat down to go over the contract. That's when things got complicated... It mostly came down to 2 things: 1) the landlord was completely inflexible. He demanded $1200 as a deposit (3 months rent), and wanted the rest of the year's rent paid in a lump sum within 10 days, or he'd claim the deposit as his own, and send us back onto the street. He insisted that the deposit was reasonable since his furniture is so nice, and that his terms were reasonable because he didn't want any hassle and was just protecting himself...; 2) For us to get our money from Baylor, the initial requirement was for us to get a copy of the lease, forward it to Baylor's lawyers for review (translate into English, review it, make amendments, back-translate into Chinese, and then present to the landlord again). This would take several days after which funds could be released (to be added to our next paycheck), then the process of wiring the money to China would take even more time. Well, that wasn't going to work... So, we ended up getting the lawyers to take one of the local lease contracts, amend it, leave some blanks to fill in, and give it back to us as a sort of pre-approved contract. Our local Chinese counterparts loaned us some money so we could make the big up -front year's payment within a reasonable amount of time, and Baylor has made things flexible enough to forward us the money now, and revise the amount after we send them the final lease ! So, we signed our lease 2 days ago (Megan got hers done 3 days ago), moved most of our stuff in, and today we leave the Uchoice hotel and move into our new place!! The best part of the contract process was getting my thumb red (not the same as getting your palms read). We didn't go with our first-choice apartment because the landlord seemed like he'd be too much of a problem. We were afraid he'd find a tiny scratch on the furniture and keep our whole deposit. The landlord for the new place also let us sign an 11-month lease, saving a few hundred dollars, and required a much smaller deposit. So, here's our living room: Not our style of furnishings, but it's comfy, has two decent-sized bedrooms (guests always welcome), and a little office. Yesterday we sat around the living room for a few hours while unpacking and such. It was nice to have some personal space in a country where the sea of humanity is always threatening to engulf you. We need to buy a fridge and a number of other essentials, but that shouldn't be too much hassle--they deliver and install everything when you buy here. Labor is cheap. Oh, did I mention there are two bathrooms. One with one of these (!!): The other has a squat toilet for anyone who needs to exercise their pelvic girdle. Just be careful of losing change from your pockets into the nether reaches of Chinese plumbing. The building also has a nice little park where we've seen other families playing, and it's perfectly located, right on the major bus routes, close to both modern and traditional markets and restaurants, a few minutes walk from Green Lake Park, and from Megan's apartment, and about 20 minutes by bike (we hear...) to our work places. So, our next update will be from the new apartment once we get connected, which may be a few days... Don't fret if you don't see us online, we're just moving.

Becoming a person

One aspect of being a stranger in a strange land is a loss of self-identity. I am no longer a person. Instead of just being the non-descript guy walking down the street, I'm suddenly the 老外, the foreigner. In general this is pretty harmless--it mostly attracts a lot of "hello"s, occasional pointing (by kids mostly), and a stare here and there--a big change from the China of a few years ago where any foreigner outside of major cities would draw crowds of onlookers. Being a foreigner colors everything, however, as made crystal clear by our search for an apartment over the past few days. On day one, we were accompanied by YunFei, the incredibly helpful lady from the provincial bureau of health who met us at the airport. We definitely needed the handholding, as everything is different here. People often don't clean the apartments before they move out--the landlords leave that to the incoming tenants; rent is expected for the entire year up front; and rentals are generally handled by agents who are often only familiar with an area of a few blocks. It seemed that no matter what requirements we stated we had, someone felt they knew what would be better for us, and showed us places that came nowhere close to meeting our expectations. Case in point: That's the squat toilet, that's the state of cleaning, and that's the water heater sitting on the squat toilet, instead of haning from the wall. After day one, we managed to take over for ourselves, having learned some of the local real estate lingo, and managed to find some more appealing places in areas where transportation is more convenient and in neighborhoods where Hyunjoo and Ella will have something to do during the day. Figuring out how to talk with the agents and not just be dragged around has definitely made me feel like more of a real person again. We've finally found a few places that will be acceptable (some very nice), at prices much higher than most people spend here, but much lower than what we'd pay in the States. The photo above is the master bedroom of our top candidate apartment for the time being. It's furnished, on the 14th floor of a nice building, with 2 bedrooms, for about $450/month. I asked the landlord if we had to keep the wedding photo of him and his wife above the bed. He very sincerely and emphatically replied that we didn't have to keep it up as he'd be taking it with him. After I explained I was joking, his mood brightened a bit, and I think I earned a few more person points. But the biggest factor in becoming a bit more of a real person is this: It's the cheapest, most featureless phone we were able to buy, with no monthly plan, just pay as you go. So, I'm nowhere close to being cool, but I am reachable by the real estate agents, and approaching personhood. We are falling into a bit of a routine as well. The residual jetlag still has us waking just before sunrise, which defnitely has it's perks: I've actually been running in the morning for the past 3 days (the most I've done in at least 5 years, if you've noticed the belly in the photos...). Sometimes I run with Megan when our jetlagged awakenings coincide, and we're brave enough to knock on eachother's doors at 6:30. My routine is walking down the 14 flights of stairs from the room, 10 minutes jogging along the river, 10 minutes of stretching, another 10 minutes jogging back, and finally the climb up 14 flights back to the room. Megan and I have both gotten some stares from the people by the elevators as we ascend the old-fashioned way. After running, we proceed to our BufetBreakafase: "It's complimentary in lage's baby" actually translates as 18 yuan for children, free for kids under 2 years. I don't have any clue where "lage's" came from... Ella continues to make friends. She's not suffering from any identity crises. As for me, the other big step in becoming a person is moving toward doing something productive. We had dinner this week with Dr Zhou, who holds many titles, and is a local expert in treating HIV/AIDS, vice-president of an infectious disease hospital, and our local contact who will be guiding us through the process of preparing for the eventual opening of the Clinical Center of Excellence in pediatric HIV/AIDS, which we are here to help establish and staff. Dr Zhou is the one with the Baylor College of Medicine cap--a little gift from Houston, and the lady on the left is Yunfei, whom I've already mentioned has been an invaluable help. Hyunjoo is the one behind the camera... So far we've only met briefly over dinner regarding our plans. Dr Zhou says that there are so few pediatric patients in the current clinic that he doesn't think we'll make good use of our time just seeing children. He'd like us to help see adults locally, as well as occasionally travel to outlying areas where we probably will see some kids. He'd also like us to help with interpretation and education. We still have to meet formally to go over many things and discuss our plans further. I think we'll try to convince him that our primary purpose here is to treat children rather than translating (not really qualified anyway) and seeing adults. So we may need to do some outreach to identify kids that we can bring to the existing clinic and begin ramping up the treatment program sooner rather than later. Our purpose in coming here before the new Center is established is to make sure that kids aren't dying for lack of treatment while we wait for the Center to be built. My guess is that the current clinics aren't short on pediatric patients because there aren't kids with HIV/AIDS, but rather that there isn't a system to get them into treatment. If nobody is treating kids, there's no reason for them to seek care. That said, we're new, and despite approaching personhood, we are still foreigners looking in from the outside with a limited understanding of the situation. We certainly need to get a better feel for things before we go making too many suggestions. We have a lot of work ahead of us.

5,000 glorious years...

Mmmmm... business class. So, the deed (of riding in business class) was better than the anticipation. The seats were comfy, the attendants particularly attentive, and the legroom/footrest were a delightful change from coach. If only I had the means to do this more often... We pretty much slept for the entire 4.5 hour flight from Seoul to Kunming. The food wasn't that impressive, but it was merely a distraction from sleep anyway. We landed in Kunming, and proceeded relatively quickly through immigration and customs. I was briefly detained for a random passport check (I'm the subject of a lot of random scrutiny it seems...), which was nothing more than a brief inconvenience. All our bags were there, before I'd even gotten through immigration, and customs waved us through without any delays. We were delighted to see Yunfei--the representative of the Yunnan Provincial HIV/AIDS care center--carrying a sign for Megan and Greg in the reception hall. She had two guys along with her who'd brought an extra van to carry our luggage, and we set off for our hotel, chatting about what exactly we might be doing over the next few weeks/months (more on that another day). For now, we'll have a day to recover, then start looking for an apartment. We arrived in our hotel, which was clean, and full of gleaming marble and polished fixtures (is this the same country I lived in in 1998???). After saying goodbye to Yunfei, we had a midnight snack of rice porridge and pumpkin cakes and went to sleep around 1am. We woke the next morning at 6:30, and took in our surroundings through the hotel window. Outside, there was a little river, with a tree-lined riverwalk, and building after building Peking (sorry) through the haze. We weren't sure whether the haze was pollution or just the morning moisture in the air, but it made for some nice diffuse lighting for photos... Ella wasn't really at her best at 6:30 though. The city was already alive, with people biking to wherever people go, and carting their vegetables off to sell. The Chinese are fond of reminding visitors of their "5,000 years of glorious history", "5,000 years of continuous civilization", etc. Although I won't get into the accuracy or uniqueness of such claims, I am sure the Chinese have a long history of doing things in public without much concern about privacy. When you live in a country of 1.4 billion people, there isn't that much privacy anyway, and public spaces are convenient for doing just about anything. A daily ritual throughout China (and parks in Chinatown throughout the world), is public morning exercise. Most of the older folks do dancing or tai-chi, although some create their own routines of contortions and gyrations. For an interesting example, check this out. The younger generation is getting more modern about things. This group of kids is apparently taking a morning roller-blading course. Having gotten my voyeuristic observations of exercise out of the way, I searched my luggage for 45 minutes before finding my underwear... then a refreshing shower and off to breakfast. The 5,000 glorious years of cooking were pretty well represented with a nice breakfast buffet. Megan wields a Chinese sausage, as I fill my plate--rice porridge, pickled veggies, eggs, a little tripe (it was there), some fruit, and a spongy little steamed sweet cake--no idea what it is, but they sell something similar in Seattle's Vietnamese stores. Megan ate tons of watermelon, Hyunjoo ate tons of noodles, and Ella pretty much ran around the restaurant harassing other diners. China has somewhat less than 5,000 years experience with elevators--hence the sign in the lift, warning about the dangers of smoking and playing (?). There is even less experince with English it would seem... Having been fed and frightened, we decided to take in the river-walk firsthand. The whole thing was lined with playground equipment and exercise contraptions for all ages. The ladies rather enjoyed the hip-rotation gizmo. Ella preferred motorized transport. After exercising, we set off to visit CuiHu (greenlake) park. Ella made a friend. Being a public place, in China, Cuihu park is also a good place for other activities considered private by most Westerners, such as sleeping. The Chinese also have 5,000 glorious years of experience with potty training, and have a rather environmentally-friendly, if not hygeinic way of helping babies taking care of their business... Yes that is his butt, and that is a pair of crotchless baby pants, known as kai deng ku. My understanding of how this works is that the parents hold the kids up over a bush, garbage can, toilet, or whatever is convenient, and make a whistling sound. Eventually the kids develop sort of a Pavlovian reaction and will do their duty every time they hear the whistling. It gets the kids out of diapers very early--like 3 months... It must realy save on the diaper rash, and probably reduces the rate of urinary tract infections by keeping the dootie off the bootie... With the new trend in the US to not use diapers, I'm going to have to do a little more research on this so I can be a more effective pediatrician once I get back to the states. Maybe I'll even start a business selling crotchless baby pants in Seattle... Well, on that note, I should get back to sleep or I'll never resolve the jet lag.

the moment...

"Better than a deed, better than a memory, the moment... of anticipation" -- according to Jacques, the bowler who nearly seduces Marge Simpson after Homer buys her a bowling ball for her birthday--a bowling ball engraved with the word "Homer"... Well, the moment of anticipation has certainly been long and generally quite sweet, but must come to an end as we actually set off. We've wrapped up our month of training, learned quite a bit, and met some great people (stay tuned for some photos from Houston...). In particular, we met the amzaing crew of people who have put together BIPAI (Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative), and finally met Megan, who I'll be working with in China for the next year. Megan is great--very easy going, loved by Ella, and she puts up with me, so I think this will work out well. At any rate, having tied things up in Houston, and gotten our visas to China, it was now time to be on our way. We flew from George Bush... Intercontinental airport, having arrived 3 hours early for the heightened security. Things moved very fast, however, so we had plenty of time to move about the concourse. Speaking of security, Hyunjoo and I both were subject to random searches of our carry-ons. They found no liquids. Interestingly enough, after they had searched, we found a bottle of Purell in Ella's diaper bag, and a bottle of lens-cleaner in the camera bag. Not exactly confidence-inspiring... anyway, they didn't explode. We flew to Dallas on AA, then we had a 3 hour layover before our next leg on Korean Air. The flight was delayed about an hour--first for "heightened security checks", then for "delayed connections". It gave us some time to explore the international terminal. I was a little hesitant to use the restrooms... At least I found out it wasn't just a male phenomenon... And, Ella made good use of the extra time running off her energy before the flight, and making Texan friends. We finally settled in for our 14 hour jaunt across the Pacific to Seoul. Ella's favorite thing about the plane was the in-flight entertainment. She also managed to sleep a little bit. I think I got about 4 hours sleep, and Hyunjoo even less. We'd been up late the night before packing, as well, with only about 2 hours sleep, so it was a very tiring flight. After landing in Korea, we went to my neice's first birthday party. By the time we got there, it was essentially over, but we did get to indulge on the food that was left. It was quite the party... in a hotel, with hundreds of fancy balloons, an ice sculpture, catered, professional photographer... impressive. I regret that I was too tired to remember to get the camera out... Anyway, I slept through the entire cab ride (much more comfortable than coach seats), back to my in-laws place and crashed after a cool shower. the next morning it was time to go out. Ella accessorized with a purse and hat as she walked along with Halmoni (grandma), Halaboji (grandpa), and mom. We got to the bank, where Ella was jealous of those at the counter. Idon't think this lady was too bothered when Ella tried to help her with her loan application. Then, we went to see the new condo building where my in-laws will soon be living. It's being built on the site of their old apartment, so they got to buy a unit at a big discount. The safety rules are fairly lax in most parts of the world. Grandma's and babies are allowed in construction sites without hardhats. Grandpas, too. and Megans (did I mention that Ella adores "auntie Megan"). We also got to visit Hyunjoo's brothers and sisters-in-law. Yes, Ji-Young is glowing... she's 38 weeks pregnant. I think Jong-hyun might be glowing a bit too. At the airport, we got to see our neice Yuna again (the one-year-old birthday girl). She and Ella enjoyed posing. Yuna with her mother Eun-Jin. And Ella with Uncle Jong-Jin. After the usual goodbyes, we passed through security and on to our waiting flight, ready for my first foray into business-class... the anticipation...